This gig was a joint-headline set from two hardcore bands. Trash Talk even hosted their own aftershow ‘house party’ in which they performed another set, I’m reliably informed by a hard-rocking amigo. Everyone was welcome to go along, but  being a school night, and with me being the ultra proffesional, ahem, I did not succumb to temptation and wrote my review in the Rescue Rooms bar. Actually, I think that was the night I got chatted up via proxy. You know, “My mate fancies you…”, that type of thing. I declined that offer, too. I digress…

Date: June, 26

Venue: Rock City, Basement

NOT only do support band Trash Talk and headliners Off! share a brutal simpatico in hardcore punk, they have another vital connection in Off!’s vocalist Keith Morris, the former Black Flag and Circle Jerks leader who has worked with both bands.

Off! is his latest project, a hardcore supergroup made up of components from Burning Brides, Redd Kross and Rocket From The Crypt.

With the crowd already drenched in sweat, beer, saliva and potentially blood thanks to Trash Talk’s visceral set – which included a violent-looking circle pit – Off! continue the cochlea-shredding intensity. Limb meets limb and bone crashes against bone as the moshpit becomes a chaotic danger zone. Off!’s feral hardcore is promising to shake Rock City’s steaming Basement to its knees.

Morris is a ball of kinetic energy. For 56, he’s still rocking hard. His screams could be clearly audible back in the band’s native Los Angeles.

They ignite and excite from the very first bile-filled volley of fury; each song a short, sharp shot to the solar plexus, each crashing cymbal, clattered drum and throttled guitar a recipe for mayhem and chaos both in the circle pit and on stage.

Together, Trash Talk and Off! are off(!) the scale.